September 25, 2013
More bizarre behavior I'm afraid. Our Assemblyman came to speak to the City of Sierra Madre last night about what he called the "State of the State." It turned into a sales pitch for some very scary Sacramento initiatives. None more so than SB-1. Here is what Chris Holden's meeting handout had to say on that topic:
SB-1 (Steinberg) - Allows cities to establish a Sustainable Communities Investment Authority and direct tax increment revenues to that Authority in order to address blight by supporting development in transit priority project areas, small walkable communities and clean energy manufacturing sites.
That is, of course, the airbrushed version. Here is how the Los Angeles Times more accurately portrayed this bill:
Bill advances creating new redevelopment in California (link): Denounced by one property owner as a “communist land grab,” a bill is advancing in the California Legislature that would allow local governments to spend tax money to seize land from residents and provide it at a discount to private developers.
Dubbed by some as the “son of redevelopment,” SB 1 would replace
redevelopment project areas disbanded more than a year ago with new
Sustainable Communities Investment Areas.
The establishment of the areas would allow local officials to use money
from the growth in property tax revenue, bonded indebtedness and powers
of eminent domain to take properties from some and give them to others
for economic development. Unlike the old redevelopment areas, government
officials would not have to show that an area is blighted to be
targeted.
“There is a big void without redevelopment,” Senate President Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg told an Assembly committee Wednesday. The panel
approved his bill, which he said “is good for jobs and its good for the
environment.”
However, more than a dozen property rights activists testified against
the bill before the Assembly Local Government Committee. The measure
would have a “chilling effect on the rights of property owners,” and
result in a “drastic loss” of farmland, said John Gamper, a lobbyist for
the California Farm Bureau Federation.
After one woman called the measure a “communist land grab,” Republicans
also weighed in with opposition. Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake
Elsinore) said many residents don’t trust government to have the power
to take private property. “That’s of huge concern for most people in
California, that the government will abuse that authority,” she said.
Sierra Madre is a town where the residents voted overwhelming to outlaw eminent domain. Chris Holden believes he has the right to not only reimpose it upon us from above, but do so in a way that gives the maximum possible rewards to his most prominent campaign donors. All backed up by the muscle of our pathological central state government.
We really need to work very hard to defeat this guy in the next election. He's dangerous.